When people use the terms
"fascism" or "fascist" today, they're usually
using it in a derogatory way to refer to a group, a regime,
or even an individual that is overly aggressive, and
controlling, and totalitarian. But its roots, actually,
lie with Benito Mussolini, who was in power in Italy
during the 1920s, and 1930s, and through World War II. And they proudly call themselves
the Fascists and their ideology as fascism. And the root of
fascist and fascism come from the Italian
word "fascio," which literally
refers to a bundle. It comes out of this idea
that a bundle of things will be stronger together
than individually. And this is actually
the symbol for fascism. And this symbol of this bundle,
this sheath of sticks, this actually predates Mussolini
by thousands of years. It goes back to Roman times. And even, based on some
of the things I've read, even predates Roman
times as a symbol of unity, a symbol
of official strength. And even before
Mussolini came around, the term was used by many,
many, many groups that viewed themselves as a
league of revolutionaries. A group of people somehow
fighting for change. And Mussolini was no different. When in the end of 1914
and then in early 1915, he establishes the Fasci
d'Azione Rivoluzionaria. And I'm, once again, so
sorry for my butchering of an Italian word. But this literally translates
to group action revolutionary, or you could say the
revolutionary action group, founded by
Mussolini in 1915. And it was really a splinter
of the Socialist Party. Well, there's an irony there
because Mussolini and fascism, in particular, is associated
with strongly anti-socialist ideology. But as Europe was entering
into World War I in 1914, some of the mainstream of
the Italian Socialist Party was against Italy
entering the war. They wanted Italy to
maintain their neutrality. But you had splinter groups,
more nationalist groups, that said, hey, look,
this is Italy's chance to claim its right. It should join the war on
the side of the Entente. And Mussolini was one
of these individuals. And because of his
strong pro-war stance, he was actually
kicked out of his-- he was head of a
socialist paper in 1914. And then he eventually, by 1915,
establishes the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria. And by the end of World
War I, as we get into 1919, it regroups under the name
Fasci Italiani di Combattimento. So this literally translates
as, you could view Fasci as a group, or league,
or revolutionary league of Italians of Combatants. Or the Combatant Italian
Revolutionary Group-- I guess is one way
to think about it-- or the Group of
Italian Combatants, is another way to
think about it. And their ideology--
and their ideology wasn't well established
right when they set up. It was just really
around this idea of being super
pro-nationalist-- but it began to develop over the course
of the '20s and the 1930s. The core idea, and I've
already said it multiple times, is an extreme nationalism. And when we talk about extreme
nationalism, or nationalism in general, it's talking
about the interests of one nation, of one
group, above all others. About putting the state
above all other things. Oftentimes, fascism is
viewed as a right-wing group. But in its purest form, it's
neither left- or right-wing. At the left end of
the spectrum, you could imagine
communist or socialism. I'll write communism,
which you could view as an extreme
form of socialism. Communism. And at the extreme
right, you could imagine just
complete free-market. Complete, unfettered,
free-market. Ultra small government. And fascists and
extreme nationalists, they didn't view themselves
as either end of the spectrum. They kind of viewed
themselves as a separate way where everything
was subordinate. The economy itself was
subordinate to the state. Now with that said, they
tended to align themselves more with folks on the right. So even though they
weren't completely free-market
capitalists, they were staunchly anti-communist
and anti-socialist, which caused them to form
alliances a little bit more with the right. But from their point
of view, it wasn't one of these extreme
right-wing ideologies that the government should be
subordinate to the economy, that the government should
be as small as possible. It was much more that
the economy was there to serve national interests. Some of the other ideologies
that the fascists began to hold is this idea that force was a
legitimate part of politics. So force in politics. And you would see this when
Benito Mussolini's fascists, through the use of
the Black Shirts, which was their
paramilitary group, which allowed them to eventually
take political control and enforce political control. And we later see it with
other groups like the Nazis. Who are also tended to be
associated with fascism. And their storm troopers
and their storm battalions, their paramilitary forces,
that are used to, essentially, take political control. The other aspect of
them-- and, as you could imagine, when we're
talking about either Mussolini or the Nazis-- is that
they weren't really fans of democracy. Not only did they
think that everything should be subordinate
to the state, but that the state should
have absolute control. So it's not about democracy. It's about having a
strong leader at the top. A strong one party at the top. And in the case of Mussolini
it was the fascists. In the case of Hitler it
ends up being the Nazis. So totalitarian. Completely totalitarian. And then, they
also-- and these all gel together-- this idea of
aggressive foreign policy. And this aggressive
foreign policy is really rooted in this
belief of cultural superiority. And, if you take the
case of the Nazis, this belief in extreme
racial superiority, cultural superiority. And I'm making a
slight distinction there because in
Mussolini's eyes, he was actually
quite disparaging. Even though Hitler
looked to Mussolini as something of a role model
when Mussolini took power in 1922, it inspired
Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch. Mussolini did not
think much of Hitler through much of the 1920s
and even early 1930s. He thought Hitler's
ideas of racial purity were really an illusion. That there was no
racially pure race. He didn't really appreciate
Hitler calling the Italians a mongrel race. But Mussolini himself did
think that the Italians were culturally superior. And that would be
their justification for an aggressive
foreign policy. For them taking over
other territory in Europe and in Africa. And as we'll see,
because they shared so much in common
ideologically, the Nazis were, you could kind of
view as a more extreme form. And the fascists themselves
were quite extreme. But the Nazis were
a more extreme form of the same ideology. They will, even though in
the '20s and early '30s Mussolini is more
eager to align himself with some of the other
powers in Europe, in particular Great
Britain and France. As we go into the
second half of 1930s, Mussolini and Hitler
find themselves to be kindred spirits. They both want to be aggressive
in their foreign policy. They both want to
secure other territory. They both have
this idea that they need space for their
superior populations, to their culturally superior,
and in the case of the Nazis, racially superior populations
to grow and thrive. And so as we enter
into the second half of the 1930s and
World War II, you have Mussolini and
the fascists become close allies of
Hitler and the Nazis.